


Nothing but a Rebound

by narcissablaxk



Category: Cobra Kai (Web Series), Karate Kid (Movies)
Genre: Canon Divergence, College AU, Fake Dating, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-04
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:41:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24530059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/narcissablaxk/pseuds/narcissablaxk
Summary: After being dumped by Ali, Johnny has an idea - date Daniel LaRusso to piss her off.
Relationships: Daniel LaRusso/Johnny Lawrence
Comments: 47
Kudos: 510





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was borne out of a conversation on Twitter where the possibility was discussed that Daniel was, in canon, probably a rebound for Ali after she and Johnny broke up after a two year long relationship. What if Johnny dated Daniel instead of Ali? 
> 
> I adjusted canon a bit for this - I don't like writing LawRusso in high school (if you do, that's totally cool, I just don't like writing it myself), so I set it while they're in college. Most of the details should be explained in the story, but let me know if you're confused about anything!

Johnny Lawrence remembers the first time he saw Daniel LaRusso. He’s been a pain in his ass since day one, and, for that matter, every day after that. He remembers how the little shit had looked up at him, chin jutted out defiantly, practically begging Johnny to punch him. What did he expect, moving in on Johnny’s girl? To her credit, Ali takes it in stride, but their relationship is never the same after that. 

She never forgot the display of jealousy that Johnny reveals that night on the beach, and even after months of Johnny trying to make it up to her in various (sometimes ill-conceived) ways, she still dumps him, on the eve of their graduation. 

Johnny doesn’t attend his graduation – he’s hung over, lying on Bobby’s floor, surrounded by beer cans and cigarette butts, dead to the world. He spends the whole summer working, desperate to get away from Sid when the first semester of college was set to start. Not having Ali around made it impossible to forget what’s going on inside his house. His mother can’t counteract everything that’s going on. 

Not that he blames her; she does the best she could. 

By the time August ccomes around, he feels like he has completely forgotten about Ali. That is, until he sees her, hanging on the arm of some dick in a letter jacket. Who still wears those after they graduate, anyway? 

She spots him instantly – that’s a good thing, right? It’s just some little burger shack, some seats under some umbrellas, nothing fancy. Still, he tries to do the right thing – he ignores her, orders his burger to go and sits to wait for it. He can feel her eyes on the back of his head, quizzical, demanding his attention, but he refuses to give in. 

That is, until she speaks to him first. He’s leaving, his burger in greasy little bag, his hands on his keys, when her voice shoots through him. 

“Johnny,” she doesn’t even have to yell to get his attention. He turns back toward her, his smile pinched. “Have you met Frank?” 

“Hi Frank,” he says flatly. Ali leans into him, this Frank guy, looking up at him adoringly. He could feel it, every inch of her body touching this other dude, lighting him on fire. He knows what she’s doing – she’s provoking him, trying to see if he’ll jump all over this Frank guy the way he had done Daniel LaRusso. She was trying to make him jealous.

He refuses to rise to the bait. Although, when Frank gives him a grunt in response, his body practically begs him to go beat that guy’s ass. What a caveman. 

“How have you been?” Ali asks, peeling herself off of the barnacle that was Frank and leaning forward, as if she really cares. “I haven’t heard from you.” 

“Didn’t think that was something you wanted,” Johnny replies. “You made it pretty clear –”

“But how is everything?” she asks. “You still going to Cal State?” 

“You’re going to Cal State?” Finally Frank seems to learn how to use his jaw to speak. 

“Northridge,” Johnny clarifies. “Yeah, I am. Still going to nursing school?” 

“Yep,” she says. “Right here in town. We’ll see each other all the time.” 

He hates the way that sounds, like she actually wants to see him. That isn’t what she wants, right? She dumped him. 

He is getting tired of the mixed signals. 

“What about everything else?” she prods. “How’s your mom?” 

“Fine.” 

“Any girlfriend?” 

“I’m dating around,” Johnny answers noncommittally, which is, by definition, a lie. 

“Really?” Ali’s eyebrows rise challengingly. “Anyone I know?” 

He shrugs, trying to put an end to the conversation. “Why do you care?” 

“I don’t,” she answers unconvincingly. “Just trying to figure out who I should be looking out for.” 

“What does that mean?” 

“I just hope Daniel LaRusso doesn’t try to talk to her, too,” she replies. 

“Still obsessed with LaRusso, I see,” he shoots back, Frank forgotten. It’s like they are dating again, fighting about something stupid and irrelevant. It was, unfortunately, one of the things he really likes about Ali. She is a firecracker, she calls him on his shit when he needed it. 

This time, though, he wasn’t sure that he needed it. 

He mutters some excuse and makes his escape, realizing as he starts his car that his appetite is gone. Still, Ali’s parting promise lingers in his mind. 

“I’ll see you around, Johnny!” 

***

He realizes, the first day of school, that he’d made a mistake coming to college. Not that it is overwhelming or terribly difficult (he is sure that would come with time), but when he sits down in his first class (English), he realizes that he is looking at Daniel fucking LaRusso’s side profile, two rows to his right. 

Mother fffff –

“Johnny Lawrence?” He’s filled out a little over the summer; he looks a little less like a boy. His jaw is still painfully sharp, the set of his brow still challenging. 

“LaRusso,” he replies. “Thought you would have gone back to Jersey by now.” 

He shrugs. “Too expensive,” he says amiably. “Hey, I just – I never got to thank you –”

“What the hell for?” 

“You passed me the trophy,” Daniel points out. “After the tournament. You were…well, you were nice.” 

“Yeah, well,” Johnny mutters, wishing he could turn away. But class hadn’t started yet, and really, he doesn’t have any friends here yet. “You fought a good fight, LaRusso.” 

And his face lights up, like Johnny had called him the greatest fighter in the world, and Johnny almost makes fun of him, almost calls him a dweeb. But he bites his tongue, Ali’s face in his mind. That’s what she would expect him to do. He won’t do that anymore, even if it is only to prove her wrong. 

That was how he becomes, well, he doesn’t want to say friends with LaRusso, but acquaintances. English class is boring, and LaRusso actually does the readings, so they meet up before class and Johnny looks over LaRusso’s algebra (he was abysmal at math somehow, forgetting to carry the damn one) while LaRusso writes down some spark notes for him for English. 

Unfortunately for their friendship, Ali is right – Johnny does see her around. He suspiciously thinks that she is purposefully showing up where he’s hanging out just to annoy him with Frank, but sometimes he’d spot her somewhere, completely oblivious to his presence, and he has to admit that it is just kind of a small town. 

And then he gets an idea. 

It is probably a terrible one, and he figures it will bring him an unnecessary amount of trouble, but doesn’t Ali deserve to feel at least a little of what he does? Especially after dumping him right before graduation? 

Yes, he thinks. She does deserve it.

***

“Do you remember Ali?” Johnny asks Daniel one day during lunch, the dining hall food bland and forgotten on their plates. Instead, they are passing back and forth a bag of pork rinds, a bag that Johnny gleefully pulled from his bag when they realize whatever they were eating was not, in fact, chicken pot pie, but supposed to be something far different. 

“Mills?” Daniel asks. “Yeah, didn’t you beat me up over her?” 

Johnny grunts noncommittally. “She dumped me the day before graduation.” 

Daniel’s eyebrows go up, his jaw working around a crunchy pork rind. “Yeah, I remember. She asked me out like a week after that.” 

“She –” Johnny clamps his jaw shut. “She what?” 

Daniel shruggs. “Yeah. We went on like one date. It was fun, I guess.” 

He guesses. Johnny could hit him again, beach or no beach. Still, it doesn’t really matter, and he takes a deep breath through his nose and moves past it. 

“Well, she’s dating some dickhead –”

“Frank.” 

“Why – why do you have so much information?” Johnny is at the edge of exasperated now, and he can tell that Daniel knows that too, the little shit, because he’s grinning behind the bag of pork rinds, passing it over to him like a peace offering. 

“She pretty much spent half of my date with her talking to him,” he said, and Johnny relaxes a little at that. “Anyway, do you have a point or are you just trying to make things awkward?” 

“I want you to date me to piss her off.” 

Daniel, to his credit, only laughs for a few seconds. Then the laughter fades and he raises his eyebrows at Johnny in a “are you serious” way that strikes Johnny as probably a positive response. “For real?” 

Johnny nods. “For real.” 

“You really think it’ll piss her off?” 

He’s pretty sure it will piss her off, though at this point he’s trying to figure out if she’d be mad that Johnny was dating Daniel or that Daniel was dating Johnny. Either way, it’s the same outcome, and after all of the crap she did rubbing Frank in his face, she kind of deserves it. 

Also he kind of wanted her to see that he didn’t hate Daniel LaRusso after all, and he can also get a date, thank you very much. Two birds with one stone or whatever.

“Okay, sure,” Daniel says agreeably. “But I get the rest of the pork rinds.” 

“Tough negotiator, LaRusso,” Johnny rolls his eyes and passes the bag over. 

Daniel gives him a cheeky grin over the bag and continues to munch. “How are you going to tell her? That we’re dating, I mean.” He puts the air quotes around the word dating, but it still comes out of his mouth with ease, Johnny’s surprised.

“I haven’t figured it out yet,” he admits, leaning back in his chair. 

“Well you can’t go tell her,” Daniel says. “She’ll know you’re bullshitting her. Someone else has got to tell her.” 

“Who?” 

“You have friends, don’t you?” Daniel says. “Have them do the dirty work.” 

“I could ask Bobby,” Johnny ruminates. “I think he’d do it.” 

“There you go,” Daniel says, and he grins wickedly, clearly having a good time. “Now, are we going to see her in person?” 

“Probably.” 

“Okay, no offense, but are you sure you’ve thought this through completely?” 

Johnny glowers. “Well now I’m not,” he snaps. “What did I forget?” 

“You’re going to have to touch me,” Daniel points out. “Like, hold hands, kiss, that stuff. That’s what will piss her off. Are you even, you know, into that?” He doesn’t say men, but Johnny understands him. 

Johnny shrugs. “Never really done it, with a guy, that is,” he mutters. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.” 

“You might want to practice ahead of time,” Daniel chuckles. “So it looks natural.” 

“With you?” Johnny asks, and Daniel licks his lips, laughing. Johnny wonders if he did that on purpose.

“Well, I think that would be important, probably,” he says. 

“Bossy, bossy,” Johnny mutters, pushing his tray of uneaten food to the middle of the table and grabbing his bag. Class will start in the next fifteen minutes, and they have to walk across campus. “Anyone ever tell you you’re a control freak, LaRusso?” 

Daniel gives him a proud look and smiles. “Yeah, Johnny, because I do things right.” 

He rolls his eyes and follows him out of the dining hall and into the sweltering heat, wondering if he maybe got himself in a little too deep.

***

Bobby agrees to mention it next time he sees Ali, though he does say, for the record, that he thinks Johnny is being an idiot. That’s a pretty typical Bobby response, so Johnny nods and disregards it. He promises to let Johnny know when it happens, and word comes only a few days after that the deed had been done. 

According to Bobby, Ali hadn’t believed him for a second, but she did look pissed when he left, so Johnny counted it as a win. 

His master plan (Daniel refused to call it that) is to see Ali at Golf N Stuff, where he had taken her for their first date. He knows that she frequents it still, and seeing Johnny with Daniel there will only upset her more. 

Their first “date” is set for Friday, and on Wednesday, Daniel comes over to his dorm (his roommate is out at a football practice), intent that they’ll practice being a couple. 

Johnny wants to ask Daniel why he’s so comfortable with all of this, especially the kissing part, but Daniel doesn’t offer the information and Johnny doesn’t ask. Instead, they both sit on Johnny’s twin bed and iron out their story. 

“So you asked me out over the summer,” Daniel says, and he’s actually writing notes down in his notebook, and Johnny really really wants to make fun of him, “and we have been casually dating until about two weeks ago, when we made things official.” 

“Right,” Johnny says, shifting uncomfortably on the couch. He isn’t uncomfortable, per se, but he is increasingly worried about what is going to come after this. 

The kissing. 

He and Daniel are friends now, that’s fine, but he can’t shake the feeling that Daniel could just pull away and make fun of him for being a bad kisser, or run out of the room and tell everyone that he kissed Johnny Lawrence. He’s pretty sure that Daniel won’t do it, but his brain keeps whispering that maybe he will. Maybe he’ll prove him wrong. 

“And where was our first kiss?” Daniel asks, tilting his head to catch Johnny’s attention. 

“The beach,” Johnny answers. “I got sunburned and you kissed me to make me feel better.” 

“Good,” Daniel writes a check mark on his notebook and is that fucker testing him? “What’s my major?” 

“Business administration,” Johnny answers blandly. “What’s mine?” 

“Shh, Johnny, this is your test,” Daniel says with a smirk, his eyes still fixed on the paper. Johnny rolls his eyes. “What color are my eyes?” 

“Dark brown,” Johnny answers. “Amber in the light.” 

Daniel does look up from the paper at this comment, his brow furrowed. “Okay, show off. Extra points.” 

Johnny feels momentarily excited by the idea of extra points, and then scoffs. “What the fuck are the extra points for?” 

Daniel shrugs. “I don’t know, but you looked really thrilled about them.” 

“Fuck off, LaRusso.” 

“My name is Daniel,” he says. “I’m your boyfriend, you should call me by my first name.” 

“Okay…Daniel,” Johnny replies, trying it out. Daniel smiles all the way to his eyes, shining amber in the failing light from the window. 

“Good,” Daniel shuts the notebook and sets it on the desk behind him. 

Johnny’s gut tightens. He knows what comes next. 

But he’s wrong. Instead, Daniel gently takes his hand, holding it in his own, their fingers threaded together. He laughs that Johnny’s hand is clammy, but it’s a light laugh, one that is supposed to inspire Johnny to laugh too, and he does. 

They turn on his roommate’s little television, watching nothing in particular, and Daniel has Johnny put his arm around his shoulders, testing his comfort level. He’s constantly asking questions, asking Johnny if he’s uncomfortable, if he wants to stop, but it’s not bad, actually, sitting there with his arm around LaRusso. 

He’s still narrow around the shoulders, and his constant movement keeps Johnny on his toes. 

By the time an hour passes, they’re borderline cuddling on Johnny’s bed, watching the evening news, making fun of the anchors, and Daniel’s leg is thrown over his, his head resting on Johnny’s chest, and there’s really nothing weird about it at all. Daniel is malleable, and accommodating, and Johnny can almost forget what a little shit he’d been when they first met when he’s acting like this.

And then the sun has set and the room is dark and the news has ended, and Daniel looks up at him from his spot on Johnny’s chest. 

“This would be a good time to practice kissing,” he says softly. “If you’re up for that.” 

Johnny just dips his head down and catches Daniel’s mouth with his, refusing to let his brain freak him out by drawing it out. Daniel kisses him back, but he’s gentle, tentative, as if he’s waiting for Johnny to pull away. Johnny respects it, the way Daniel has been considerate through the entire process, but he knows a chaste kiss isn’t what’s going to sell their relationship to Ali. 

So he licks along the seam of Daniel’s mouth, and Daniel gasps, parting his lips and allowing Johnny entrance. He’s still gentle, still letting Johnny lead, but his hand on Johnny’s arm is tight, tense in the material of his shirt, and Johnny turns more completely toward him, to they’re facing each other on the tiny bed now, Daniel’s leg tangled between Johnny’s, one of Johnny’s hands resting on Daniel’s jaw, tilting him up just a little. It’s heady and so surprisingly easy that Johnny could almost forget it’s fake, could almost forget that they’re just doing this to piss of Ali. 

Daniel is the one who pulls away first, but his eyes are still closed, his lips a deep, dark pink. 

“Yeah, I think –” he sits up, clearing his throat, and Johnny follows him, carefully disentangling them. “I think we’ve um, we’ve got that covered.” 

“Are you alright?” Johnny asks. 

“Yeah, yeah, of course,” Daniel says. “Keep studying the details, and I’ll see you in class on Friday.” 

“Okay,” Johnny says blankly. “Are you sure you’re okay?” 

“I’m fine,” Daniel says again, and he says it so firmly, his gaze on Johnny’s, that he believes him. “Promise.” 

Johnny doesn’t get up to walk him out. Daniel shuts the door behind him and Johnny falls back onto his bed, closing his eyes. 

This was going too well; this was too easy. There had to be a catch. He just hopes that he’ll be able to see it when it appears.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel and Johnny go to Golf N Stuff. Their goal is realized, but not in the way they wanted.

Golf N Stuff is reasonably packed when they arrive. Johnny puts the car in park and Daniel watches him from the passenger seat with curious eyes. When Johnny suggested dating to piss off Ali, Daniel thought he was joking. That is the sort of thing Johnny would joke about, isn’t it? But here they were, sitting side-by-side in Johnny’s red car, Johnny in his Cobra Kai jacket and Daniel in a button-up shirt Johnny had picked out for him an hour ago. 

“Remember the plan?” Johnny asks into the silence. Daniel nods, even though he’s pretty sure he’s forgotten it, and Johnny smiles at him. 

That was new; Daniel hadn’t expected charming smiles when there was no one around to see them. He smiles back at him, trying to ignore his clammy hands, his thundering heartbeat. His body can’t seem to recognize that this isn’t a real date, but a fake one. 

Not since the kiss. 

His motives for the kiss had been entirely pure, no matter how guilty he felt about it now. He did know that they needed to appear comfortable with things like that if they wanted to prove to Ali that they were a couple, but he hadn’t expected to like it so much. He certainly hadn’t expected Johnny to like it either. Because that was what happened, wasn’t it? 

He shakes the thought from his head and opens the door. Johnny follows him. 

They decide to play mini-golf first, since walking all over the place playing all eighteen holes will give them ample time to be spotted by Ali, who is probably wandering around somewhere with Frank. _Frank,_ Johnny always sneers, and Daniel can’t blame him. They’d been together two years before she dumped him the day before graduation. He would have been pissed about it, too. 

They play amiably enough, poking fun at each other the way they do at school, knocking each other’s shots, talking in their backswing, kicking the balls away from the hole. Daniel is pleased to notice that after about two holes, Johnny has stopped looking around for Ali and is actually enjoying himself unabashedly. It warms him for some reason, seeing him smile while he’s lining up a shot, muttering some nonsense shit talk over his shoulder at Daniel while he does it. 

He can almost forget while they’re here until he sees a familiar head of blonde hair. 

“Shit,” he says, and Johnny looks back at him, concerned. 

“What?” he asks. 

Daniel doesn’t speak, but jerks his head toward Ali, who hasn’t spotted them yet. 

“Alright,” Johnny says, the fun slipping off his face, replacing itself with worry. “You know what to do.” 

They abandon their own turn-taking for the sake of the act, and Daniel steps up to take his shot. On cue, Johnny steps up behind him, his arms easily finding Daniel’s hips. 

“Here,” he says, just a shade louder than he’d have to, “widen your stance a little bit, it’ll help you keep your arms from moving and knocking the ball off center.” 

Daniel wants to roll his eyes. If they weren’t pretending to be the cutest couple at Golf N Stuff, this would be the moment when he’d tell Johnny that he _hasn’t been hitting crooked for eight damn holes, Lawrence, get it together._

But that sort of banter would look like a fight, so he bites his tongue and lets Johnny’s hands leave his hips and find the putter, keeping Daniel pinned between them. 

He can feel Johnny’s breath on his neck, his hands over his own. He’s warm, almost too warm, but his hands are gentle, and he smells a little bit like the cherry snow cone they ate before they came out here. There’s something very enticing about it, but then Johnny is guiding him through the gentle swing and then he’s gone, pulling his arms away, but his hands linger over Daniel’s arm, just the fingertips, and Daniel doesn’t even remember if the ball goes in or not. 

“Do you think she saw?” Johnny whispers, and Daniel can barely hear it. He doesn’t bother to look around – he doesn’t care if she saw or not. 

“Yeah,” he says, mostly to appease Johnny. “I’m sure she saw.” 

When he turns back around, he catches Johnny looking at him, something unreadable in his gaze that Daniel knows will haunt him later, when he’s trying to forget tonight. 

***

Johnny has been keeping a close eye on Daniel tonight. After he bolted from his room after the kiss, he worried that Daniel might want to back out. It would be his right, after all. Maybe Johnny is just a terrible kisser. 

His ego protests at the thought, but it is really the only solution he can think of. He has two goals for the evening – he wants to make Ali jealous, because that’s what she deserves, dammit, and he wants to make sure Daniel actually has a good time. 

He tells himself that’s because Daniel is his friend and he feels guilty about using him like this, even if he seems enthusiastic about it. 

They continue to play, going back to their normal selves when Ali is nowhere to be seen, and Johnny thinks he prefers it this way. Daniel is a snarky little shit, and playing mini golf with him is actually fun when they’re getting competitive and trying to actively sabotage each other. It could almost be a normal night when he looks up at the windmill and sees Daniel picking up rocks and placing them around the hole so Johnny could never get the ball in. 

“What are you doing, you asshole?” he shouts, and Daniel looks up, brown eyes wide, like a deer in headlights, a rock in his hand. 

“It’s called strategy, Johnny,” he says snootily, putting the rock down in its intended place. “You would know if you used the brains underneath your pretty blond locks.” 

“Move the rocks, LaRusso,” he says, trying for a no-nonsense tone. Daniel pretends like he can’t hear him, so Johnny abandons his putter at the start of the hole and stomps over to stop him. Daniel, to his credit, doesn’t bolt, but stands his ground, using his putter as a tripping device, so Johnny has to avoid the damn putter and move the rocks at the same time. 

“I am so going to kick your ass when this is done,” he growls at him, but Daniel is trying to trip him with the putter, so all ferocity is lost when he stumbles, trying not to laugh. 

“Promises, promises,” Daniel says cheekily, and Johnny flushes all the way to the roots of his hair. He looks up at Daniel and sees him watching, his eyes sparkling with mischief. 

“You’re a little shit, you know that?” Johnny says. 

Daniel shrugs. “It’s been mentioned a few times.” 

They finish the game without seeing Ali again, and Daniel triumphantly declares himself the winner, even though he was the only one with the pencil to keep score. Johnny sneaks a peek at the numbers, and it says “Daniel -45, Johnny 1,000.” 

He rolls his eyes and snatches the score card out of his hand and slides it into his pocket. He doesn’t know why he keeps it, just that it deserved to be kept. 

***

They don’t see Ali again until they’re in the arcade, playing a basketball shooting game that Daniel is terrible at because Johnny won’t stop looking at him for some reason. It’s Johnny who spots her this time, his hand swatting at Daniel’s hip to get his attention. 

But they don’t have a plan for this part of the place, and Daniel isn’t sure if he trusts Johnny to improvise. He’s frantically trying to figure out what to do, how to appear disgustingly coupley when the air conditioner above them kicks on, littering a tiny shower of frosty air right on top of his head. 

He shivers, the way he always does when he even senses cold, that’s why he’s still in California, he thinks, and immediately, Johnny is shrugging off his Cobra Kai jacket and pulling it around his shoulders, tugging the collar so it fits around him. 

Daniel would love to make a sarcastic comment about how he wouldn’t be caught dead in a Cobra Kai jacket, but he knows that’ll ruin the moment and Ali is apparently somewhere (he can’t see her), so he does what any good boyfriend would do. 

He leans forward and gives Johnny a kiss, sweet and soft, a thank you for the jacket. It was meant to be only a moment, but Johnny still has a hold on the lapels of the jacket, and he holds him there, one hand releasing the red leather to slide inside, his warm hand on the skin of Daniel’s neck. A tilt of his head and it graduates from soft to hungry, Johnny’s hand tightening before he seems to realize what he’s doing and it relaxes, rising to push through some of hair at the base of Daniel’s neck.

He doesn’t know how long it is before Johnny pulls away, because his eyes are still closed, and he doesn’t open them again until Johnny’s hand comes away from his neck, still burning where he touched it. 

“Did she see?” Daniel asks when he recovers himself. Johnny looks at him like he isn’t sure who he’s talking about, and then his eyebrows go up in recognition. He looks around, but comes up empty. 

“Probably,” he says. 

Johnny takes his hand, and it’s definitely Johnny’s hand that’s clammy, not his, and pulls him toward the sets of tables, where people stop and eat between games of mini-golf or arcade games. Daniel can’t help but look around, trying to catch a glimpse of Ali, trying to see if their whole charade has paid off or if it was a bust. 

But if it was a bust, that just means they’d have to come back next Friday and do it again. The idea isn’t repulsive to him. 

“I’m going to go get us some drinks,” Johnny says, and he kisses Daniel on the cheek, a quick peck that was completely unnecessary, unless Ali is lurking somewhere nearby. But Johnny pulls back and gives him another smile before turning away, leaving Daniel alone at the table, confused. 

***

Ali finds Johnny standing in line to buy sodas, hands in the pockets of his jeans. He expects her to find him eventually, but still, he jumps when she says his name. 

“Johnny Lawrence, giving up his Cobra Kai jacket to Daniel LaRusso, that’s something you don’t see every day,” she says, and he can see by the set of her jaw that she’s not happy. He feels triumphant, vindicated that she finally feels the way he did when she dumped him the day before graduation. 

“He was cold,” Johnny shrugs, as if it made perfect sense. 

“Come on,” she replies, and Johnny steps forward one step as the line gets shorter. “We all know why you’re doing this.” 

“Because my boyfriend deserves a good date?” he asks. 

“Because you’re trying to upset me,” she replies, and he tries not to let anything show in his face. He knows his poker face isn’t the best, but still, Ali seems frustrated that he doesn’t just immediately admit that she’s right. “You hate Daniel LaRusso.” 

“No, I don’t,” he says truthfully. 

“You do,” she replies, and it’s almost petulant, whiny. “You do and I can prove it.” 

He ignores her and steps up to the little stand. “Two root beers, please,” he says to the man back there, who passes over the glass bottles instantly. He turns back to Ali, who is blocking his way, her arms crossed. “Don’t you have a date to be getting back to?” he asks, and he’s pleased when Ali looks away from him to see if Frank is anywhere nearby. “If you leave Frank alone too long, he’s going to start chewing on the windmill out there.” 

“You’re such an asshole, Johnny,” she hisses, and Johnny shrugs. For some reason, this conversation is not nearly as satisfying as he hoped it would be. Instead, he kind of just wants Ali to go away so he can get back to Daniel.

And then Ali kisses him, and Johnny can’t push her away because he has bottles in both of his hands, but this is definitely not what he wanted, he knows that now, and he has to step back and away from her to be free. She doesn’t follow him when he leaves, but when he looks back, she’s standing where he left her, looking confused. 

_Shit,_ this was a terrible idea. 

***

They’re sitting in the car on the way back to campus when Johnny speaks. 

“Ali kissed me.” 

Daniel is still wearing his Cobra Kai jacket. He feels suddenly too warm in it now; he pulls it off, not an easy feat with a seatbelt on, and tosses it into the backseat. “She – she –” he stops, trying to figure out what to say. He feels like there’s something stuck in his throat. “Good for you.” 

It comes out flat, insincere. He can’t really blame the tone of his voice – that’s how he feels. He wasn’t sure what he expected to happen, but the way his head swims, like he just got punched, makes it clear to him that he expected something very different. 

He remembers the way Johnny kissed him in front of the basketball game. That felt real, but was it, could it have been? The evidence is not on his side. 

“I – do you think that’s – that’s good?” Johnny asks, and his hands are tight on the steering wheel, and Daniel wants to ask him why that is, why he’s asking Daniel’s opinion at all, because this has to have been what Johnny’s end goal was from the beginning right? Why else go through all of this? Why else put on the charade? 

And what the hell was he thinking, going along with it? 

He berates himself for being short-sighted, for not understanding, but deep down, he knows that he can’t blame Johnny for achieving his goal. Not when he agreed to this stupid scheme out of his own self-interests. Pretending to date someone to act out your crush and try to get it out of your system is self-destructive, to say the least, and he can’t really be surprised that it backfired on him. 

He knew it would. 

“Isn’t that what you wanted?” Daniel finally says, and the silence has gone on too long, Johnny knows that something is wrong. 

“I wanted to piss her off –”

“So you didn’t want to get back with her?” The words come out more forcefully than he intends, and Johnny looks concerned, like he’s going to ask Daniel what’s wrong, and Daniel doesn’t really think he can handle that conversation right now. How much would Johnny make fun of him if he knew? 

A traitorous voice tells him that Johnny wouldn’t laugh at him, because they’re friends, but it’s too much of a risk. 

They ride the rest of the way in silence.

***

They don’t speak for a week after that. Daniel is the one avoiding Johnny, he’s pretty sure, because Johnny comes by his dorm a couple of times and Daniel ignores his knock, or goes out to the library when he knows Johnny’s class ends. He even skips the class they have together, chooses to eat lunch in his dorm instead. 

It’s not meant to be petty, but he’s sure that Johnny sees it that way. He just doesn’t want to have to explain himself. 

He’s out at the beach on a Saturday afternoon when the person he wants to see the least (or second-least) finds him completely by chance. 

She sits down next to him on the bench, where he’s sipping a lemonade from the little stand behind him. He can just barely feel the air conditioning leaking from the little trailer. Still, when he turns to see Ali sitting next to him, he almost gets up and leaves. 

“I just wanted to apologize,” she says in a rush before he can get up and go. 

“For what?” he mutters, and she gives him that look that he remembered most, the are you kidding look that would be over the frames of glasses if she wore any. 

“I thought that Johnny was just going out with you to make me jealous,” she explained, “so I kissed him. He didn’t have anything to do with it. In fact, he pushed me away pretty quick.” 

Daniel furrows his brows. “He – he pushed you away?” 

She nodded. “I mean, he was holding drinks, so he sort of just backed away, but same thing, I suppose.” She looked over at him, taking in his appearance, but what she was looking for, he didn’t really know. “I heard you two were…well, not together anymore, so I figured if it was all fake, he would have called me by now. But he hasn’t.” 

Daniel isn’t really sure what to say. 

“Look, I loved Johnny,” she says when he doesn’t speak. “We were together for two years. He will always be important to me. But I also know Johnny well enough to know when someone is good for him.” 

She looks at him significantly and stands, straightening the straw hat on her head. 

“I’m sorry for coming between you,” she said, and she dropped a manicured hand to his shoulder. “Really, it was a shitty thing to do.” 

“Thanks,” he finally says because he’s pretty sure she won’t leave until he says something. 

She leaves as quickly as she appeared, and Daniel is left on the bench, trying to figure out what to do now. Part of him feels strangely elated, like Ali left an important artifact in his lap that he can decide to use or disregard as he sees fit. Another part of him is angry. What was the point of this whole thing if Johnny wasn’t going to get back together with her? 

And if he didn’t get back together with her, why didn’t he tell him? 

He remembers, suddenly, the evenings when Johnny knocked on his dorm room door, the lengths he went to avoid him. 

He jumped up from his seat, leaving his lemonade behind.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Idiots-to-lovers

After knocking on Johnny’s dorm door three times, Daniel realizes, belatedly, that he has no idea where Johnny usually is at this time of day. Would he have better luck in the dining hall? Did he have a class right now? Still, he’s breathing heavily, and this feels like an important part of all romantic comedies, so he knocks again, waiting as patiently as he can for Johnny to open the door. 

And then the door swings open, revealing Bobby instead. 

“Oh, he finally appears,” Bobby says, crossing his arms over his chest. “Better late than never, eh, Danny boy?” 

“Where is he?” Daniel asks, pumped too full of adrenaline to bother asking Bobby what he means. 

“He’s out getting shitfaced with Dutch,” Bobby replies. “You know, what he does when someone breaks his heart.” 

“Don’t be so dramatic,” Daniel retorts. “I came to apologize.” 

Bobby quirks his lips at him. “You’ll have to wait until tomorrow then, if he isn’t too hungover.” He puts his hand on the door, clearly about to close it. “Choose the words you say to him wisely, LaRusso.” 

“Wh – why?” Daniel asks. “It’s just been a week.” 

He’d spent the whole week feeling like shit, too, but Bobby doesn’t need to know that. That feels too personal to tell one of Johnny’s friends who definitely helped push him down a hill or two while they were in high school. 

“Are you stupid?” Bobby snipes, “Johnny’s had a crush on you for a long time. God, I thought _you_ were the smarter one.” 

Daniel blinks, keeping his eyes closed for longer than necessary, trying to process. “Uh, no, he definitely asked me to fake-date him to piss off Ali.” 

“I don’t claim to know Johnny’s reasoning behind literally anything,” Bobby says, holding up his hands, “but he definitely had a thing for you before that. Wouldn’t shut up about you; frankly, it’s annoying.” 

“So he’s – wait –”

“Look, as much as I’d like to stand here in the doorway and explain it to you for the foreseeable future, I….well, I don’t, so find him tomorrow. Use the extra time to revise whatever speech you prepared, LaRusso.” 

The door closed in his face before he had the time to say anything else, though truthfully Daniel doesn’t know what to say. Instead, he stares at the closed door for a long moment before turning around and leaving. He spends a long time wandering aimlessly in the halls of the dorm building, unable to force himself to leave. Perhaps part of him is hoping to accidentally run into Johnny in the hallway, even if he were drunk, that way Daniel can just say what he needs to say and get it out before he explodes. 

But – and he stops in the middle of the hallway, a random guy in a towel pushing past him back to his room – does he even know what he wants to say? Truthfully, he was planning on just saying what came to mind, mostly that he was sorry for ignoring him. But now he had new information, and didn’t that have to be taken into account? 

Johnny liked him? Like…before all of this? 

Why hadn’t he noticed?!

***

Johnny doesn’t go to the dining hall when Daniel isn’t there with him – that was something they’d done together, to go over homework and eat something probably not available in any of the lines. It didn’t feel right, sitting there at the tables by himself, when his eyes were always traitorously looking to the door to see if he was coming through. 

He wouldn’t be, he knew that now. 

He trudges to his English class, his new least favorite class now that Daniel stopped showing up. Did he drop the class, or was he just waiting until everything blew over to come back? Johnny doesn’t know, doesn’t know why Daniel would waste a drop like that, unless he made things monumentally worse than he thought. He doesn’t want to think about it while he’s dealing with a hangover, but here he is, going through it for the umpteenth time.

He knew there was going to be some sort of issue with his stupid plan – he’d told himself that he just needed to keep his eyes peeled for it. And then the issue had slipped through his fingers and bitch-slapped him on its way out. 

Did that make sense, or was he mixing metaphors? Oh well, he should learn about that in this class anyway. 

He remembers, even as he’s actively trying not to think about it, dropping Daniel off at his dorm, reaching belatedly to grab his hand while Daniel was already halfway out of the car. He has a suspicion about what had gone so terribly wrong, but bringing it up and discussing it is a completely different story. 

And Daniel is in the building before he can think of the words to say, so he’s stuck sitting in his car, trying to put the words together. 

Turns out, it isn’t the speech that’s the problem, it’s making Daniel listen to it. 

Perhaps his disappearance is for the best, after all, Johnny is thinking as he plods into the classroom, everything heavy with his stupid hangover. Except something is different this time – Daniel is sitting in his regular spot, looking up expectantly when Johnny walks in, and he smiles, the sight of it so soft and tender that Johnny does what he does best –

He turns around and leaves. 

He hears Daniel calling after him but doesn’t stop, doesn’t slow down. Truthfully, he’s not really sure where he’s going, and he’s pretty sure there is a test in that class today, but it doesn’t matter right now. All that matters is getting away – 

And then Daniel’s hand closes on his arm and pulls him around. 

They stand there, staring at each other, for a long moment, students milling around them, trying to get to their classes, muttering about _drama queens_ as they pass them by. Daniel is biting his lip, as if he’s trying very hard to keep words in his mouth, but Johnny wishes he’d just say something. His head throbs again, reminding him about the lengths to which he’d gone to get Daniel out of his head, and he sighs. 

“If you’re not going to say anything, I’m just gonna go,” he finally says, looking down at his shoes and the carpet beneath them. 

“Don’t –” Daniel puts his hand on Johnny’s arm again, and this time, he doesn’t remove it. 

“There’s a test in that class today,” Johnny says when Daniel doesn’t speak again. 

“Oh shit, really?” Daniel mutters. “Fuck.” 

Johnny shrugs, and then Daniel laughs. Quietly at first, and then he releases Johnny’s arm to laugh into his hands, his narrow shoulders shaking. 

“What?” Johnny asks finally. “What’s so fucking funny, LaRusso?” 

“After all the work we did, we’re still going to fail that test,” Daniel says. 

“I could still go back,” Johnny replies, even though he knows he won’t if Daniel says so. He wants to listen to him, even if it means a bad GPA, even if it means an F, even if it means anything. College sucks anyway, he thinks when Daniel smiles at him. 

“You won’t,” Daniel says predictably. “You’re going to stay with me.” 

Johnny rolls his eyes even while his cheeks heat up predictably. “Okay shithead, you drop off the face of the earth for a week and now you’re ordering me around?” 

He says it mostly as a joke, but Daniel’s face is serious. “I’m sorry about that,” he says, the words soft and honest. “I – I didn’t realize –”

“You think I kiss all my guy friends like that, LaRusso?” Johnny asked. 

Daniel’s mouth twitches like he’s going to smile, but he shelves it for later. “I just thought you were good at it.” 

_Score._ Johnny grins at him, wide and boyish and charming, and Daniel rolls his eyes. 

“Whateverrrrr,” he draws the word out, as if that will put a damper on Johnny’s thousand-watt smile. “My point is, I’m sorry that I avoided you instead of letting you tell me you totally had a big ol’ fat crush on me, if Bobby is to be believed.” 

“Fuuuuck _you,_ Bobby,” Johnny mutters, and now it’s Daniel’s turn to smile. 

“I can ask him how you kiss your guy friends, right?” Daniel asks, feigning seriousness. “Since apparently that’s something that you do –”

Johnny swats him gently in the chest, a reprimand that does nothing more than make Daniel laugh, but Johnny can tell that it’s nothing but nervous giggles, because even though he apologized, Johnny still hasn’t accepted it, hasn’t said he forgives him. 

“I’m sorry about pulling you into my Ali drama,” he says instead. Daniel looks up at him, eyes bright, the laughter still etched into his face. “You didn’t deserve to be used like that.” 

It’s surprisingly sincere, and even Johnny is pleased with himself, proud that he managed to say what he had been planning to say to Daniel a whole week ago, if the obstinate fucker hadn’t avoided him for so long. 

“Does that mean you’re going to take me on a real date?” Daniel asks finally, “or do I have to make up an ex-girlfriend for that?” 

“I’m not taking you back to Golf N Stuff, you fucking gremlin,” Johnny rolls his eyes, but while he’s doing that, Daniel slips his hand into his and squeezes, “you’re going to get us kicked out forever if you keep moving parts of the course.” 

“We all have to make sacrifices to win the greatest game in America, Johnny,” Daniel says seriously. 

“Mini-golf?” Johnny asks. 

“Love, idiot,” Daniel replies, pulling him out of the building and into the sunlight outside. 

***

In the end, Johnny tells him that he has to go to some Country Club dinner on Friday. His mother always forces him to go, mostly so his step-dad won’t, so he obliges her. She always lets him do what he wants, which is usually putt in the dark at the golf course or (before) dance with Ali. 

He tells Daniel that his mother would love it if he came to keep Johnny company. It’s just a stuffy dinner with a dance at the end, and if they get bored, Johnny knows some of the caddies that work the events who can slip them some golf clubs and glow-in-the-dark balls. Still, Daniel looks apprehensive, and Johnny has to promise him that if he isn’t having a good time, they’ll leave before Daniel agrees. 

He picks him up on the day, in his suit and tie, grinning brightly when Daniel slides into the passenger seat in a bowtie. 

“Don’t laugh at the bowtie,” Daniel insists as Johnny gives him a kiss on the cheek. “It’s deeply connected to me, as a person.” 

“Is it?” Johnny asks, pulling out of the parking lot and onto the street. 

“Of course it isn’t,” Daniel replies, “it just came with the suit rental. I guess they just looked at me and said _hmm, give this dweeb a bowtie so he looks like a kid on his way to his quincenera._ ” 

Johnny wants to tell him that he looks very handsome with the bowtie, that the suit he’s wearing is sharp and he looks almost painfully good in black, but he bites his tongue. They’d discussed things, of course, but they always hedged away from the really serious compliments, turning most of the softness into jokes, because sometimes it’s just easier that way, he guesses. 

But he feels the sincerity gnawing at him, asking to be released. 

He just doesn’t want to scare Daniel away with it. 

“Some very deep thoughts happening under those golden locks,” Daniel says quietly when they’re almost to the country club. “Are you nervous?” 

“No,” and it’s mostly the truth, but Daniel glowers at him. “I’m not.” 

“Are you worried that someone’s going to be a dick about you being here with another guy?” 

He shrugs. He isn’t really, any more than he is normally. Daniel watches him pull carefully into a parking space and when the car is in park, reaches over and takes his hand. 

“Thank you for asking me to this,” he says when Johnny finally looks over at him. “I know we don’t do this, but I’m going to get serious with you for a second.” 

“LaRusso –”

“Nope, shut up, it’s my turn now,” Daniel says with a smile. “I know that you think this is going to be stuffy and snobby and boring, but I would be happy to be with you anywhere. Golf N Stuff, English class, your dorm, here, anywhere. The only bonus this place has over all of the other ones, is,” he looks down at Johnny’s suit and tie, a smirk taking over his face, “I really enjoy the wardrobe.” 

Johnny bites his lip to keep from grinning. 

“I really like spending time with you,” Daniel says, the seriousness back on his face. “So don’t worry about me. I’m doing fine as long as you’re there, too.” 

Johnny wishes he has something profound to say, something that would amount to more than a _“same,”_ but Daniel is gazing at him in the near dark and the words won’t come, but it doesn’t matter, because Daniel is smiling, leaning over the middle console to give him a lingering kiss at the corner of his mouth, smelling like soap and a cologne he’s never worn before. 

The dinner is boring, but the food is good, so they whisper quietly to each other while they eat, the rich people around them ignored and forgotten. Johnny’s mother herself comes by long enough to drop a kiss on the top of his head, shake Daniel’s hand, and sweep away again, a vision of beautiful blonde hair and Johnny’s eyes. 

The dinner devolves into faceless white-haired rich men standing up and toasting people, and Daniel and Johnny are forced to stop their hushed discussions, lest one of these weirdly red-faced men decide to ask them what they’re talking about. 

They were talking about _Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,_ but that’s irrelevant. 

Instead, they have to listen to people they don’t know ramble on about the “good breeding” of the country club members, the philanthropic endeavors they all donate to, blah blah blah, Johnny doesn’t care at all when he’s at these things by himself, and he cares even less when Daniel is sitting next to him, tapping his foot on the floor next to him. 

When this is over, he promises himself, they can sneak out and go wander the grounds, away from everyone else. 

And then Daniel’s hand lands on his leg under the table. 

He almost jumps out of his skin – he glares over at Daniel, who is turned almost away from him, his eyes on the old geezer that’s still talking, the set of his mouth just a little bit tighter than before, giving him away. 

He doesn’t do anything with his hand, just lets it sit there, gently moving his thumb back and forth over Johnny’s knee, but it doesn’t matter, because it is infinitely more interesting than whatever these other assholes are talking about. Johnny exhales, trying to be cool, be calm, it’s not like Daniel is actively trying to fuck him over right now, right? 

Wrong. 

The moment he relaxed, Daniel’s hang on his leg inches up, higher, toward his thigh. Johnny feels his face go warm; he looks to Daniel again, who was still appearing to attentively listen to the man speaking (was it someone else now? Johnny didn’t know), but now he is smirking, hiding it behind his other hand. 

And then his hand moves higher, just a fraction of an inch, but to Johnny it feels like miles. His skin is on fire – he inhales sharply, trying to keep his face straight, but it's hard when he's looking at Daniel’s sharp profile, who looks so damn smug he wants to kiss it off his stupid face. 

After a moment Daniel finally, mercifully, looks over. “You okay?” he asks, the whisper so quiet Johnny has to lean into him to hear it, has to turn his knees closer to Daniel, which puts Daniel’s hand even higher up his leg. He closes his eyes, trying to train his brain not to think any sort of thoughts right now, not while he's sitting at a table with a thousand other Sids and Sid’s friends. But Daniel’s hand is warm, and soft, and he can feel the heat of his skin radiating through the slacks, heating his whole body through.

“Johnny,” Daniel’s whisper is still feather-soft, the word ghosting over his jaw.

The room erupts in applause, faces around the room smiling up at whoever the hell was talking the whole time. Johnny and Daniel turn away from each other to the crowd, who are suddenly getting up from their seats and making their way to the dance floor, the speeches finally over. 

Once they are more alone, Daniel turns back to him. 

“You’re looking…” his eyes rove over Johnny’s face, smug and adorable all at once. “Flushed.” 

“Fuck you,” Johnny laughs, trying to resist the urge to pull his collar away from his neck. 

“Mmm,” Daniel hums, glancing around before leaning forward to kiss him, solid and searing and possessive. “Now are we going to sneak out onto the golf course, or did you want to dance?” 

Johnny looks out at the dance floor, where all of the old people that had just been talking were now gathered, dancing to a song he didn’t recognize. He tries to picture himself on the dance floor, where he had danced with Ali, holding Daniel instead. 

It doesn't feel right. 

“You know,” he says slowly. “One of the caddies has a boom box in the groundskeeping office. I bet we can get it.” 

Daniel’s eyes light up mischievously. “Then what are we going to do with it?” 

Johnny takes his hand. “I think we can have our own dance, out on the golf course. With better music than this.” 

“You better not play Ratt.” 

“It’s a classic –”

“Classically _annoying_ –”

“I’m not playing Springsteen –”

“Fine, ruin all of the romance,” Daniel pouts, but there's a smile at the edge of his mouth. “Besides, we both know you want to go out there so I can touch your leg again.” 

Johnny grins back at him, and Daniel returns it, rolling his eyes. 

“Alright, Prince Charming, lead the way.”


End file.
